Decrepit
by MzShellSan
Summary: Decrepit: Adj. Worn out or ruined because of age or neglect. A case in a building that was once an mental health hospital. What could go wrong? Day 3 of FicMas, dedicated to ncisduckie!


**25 Days of FicMas**

**Day:** Three

**Dedication: **ncisduckie

**Fandom: **Ghost Hunt

**Pairing: **Mai/Naru

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Ghost Hunt

**Decrepit**

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Adj. Worn out or ruined because of age or neglect.

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_Dark eye's watched with poorly concealed rage, un-shed tears welling and hatred gleaming. Another scream left the table across from her and in answer another mirror broke, the shattering sound ringing in her ears as she watched them hit her again. It was too far away for her to be sure, but she was almost positive that there was blood pouring from her eyes._

"_Again. Do it again."_

_The sobbing was heart-breaking and she wished there was something that she could do to make it stop._

_Just like an answer to her prayers, the sobbing stopped only a moment later, but instead of relief she only felt fear washing over her like ice-cold water._

_'Not again, please, not again.'_

"_She's gone."_

_There was a tsk'ing noise before footsteps moved towards her direction; then all she saw was darkness._

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Mai shivered as she spotted the building they were going to for their latest case out of the van window, her cheek pressed against the glass like that would help her to see better.

"I still can't believe that we're actually going to investigate a mental hospital," she muttered. "It's like a horror story waiting to happen."

There was a scoff from in front her her, and Mai didn't need to look to know that Naru was rolling his eyes at her comment.

"It's just like investigating any other place. Don't do anything stupid and everything should go as smoothly as any other time." It wasn't a reassuring tone of voice, but Mai would like to imagine that Naru had intended for it to calm the anxiety that was crawling beneath her skin.

It didn't really have that effect though.

"So not smoothly at all," Mai grumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

Naru rolled his eyes, not bothering to say anything more on the subject.

It was only a couple minutes later that they arrived at the top of the mountain, the only building they could see being the one they were about to investigate; The Imamiya Institute.

In truth, Mai didn't know too much about this case. Naru had accepted the case while she was at school, and she hadn't received much more an explanation on why other than that he thought that the chance to investigate a real mental institution would be _interesting_.

She huffed mentally at the reminder of his vague explanation. When she'd pushed him for more details, he'd just told her that she could wait until he briefed everyone else when they got there.

Stepping out the van, she couldn't help the way fear seemed to edge at the back of her mind, before she forced it away.

_'Don't be ridiculous, Mai,'_ she scolded herself, _'it's just another building.'_

"Stop daydreaming. The sooner we get the van unpacked, the sooner everything is set up."

Looking over at Naru, Mai sighed. She didn't bother to complain that none of the others were there yet to help; it wouldn't do her any good. Instead she made her way over to the van and collected a monitor before following after Naru before he decided to leave her behind.

As they stepped through the door, Mai shivered from the way fear and anger seemed to grasp at her again and suddenly it was all the harder to take her second step. Frozen in place, she focused on breathing, completely unaware of the way Naru was calling her name – or of his concerned confusion.

"Mai!"

Finally the fear seemed to leave her and Mai could step inside the building properly.

For a moment, she thought she heard the sound of someone telling her to leave, but it was so quiet she wasn't sure.

"Mai!"

Shaking her thoughts, she moved all of her attention over to Naru.

"What is it?" she asked, trying not to sound as shaken as she was feeling.

"What happened?" His tone was no-nonsense and Mai wished that she actually had an answer to give him – if only to prevent him from glaring at her any longer for her silence.

"I- I'm not sure. I just stepped through the doorway and it felt like I couldn't move. I was so scared; so angry. What does that mean, Naru?" she asked.

Watching Mai with appraising eyes, Naru narrowed his eyes in thought. "It could mean a few things, but I'll discuss them more later. Hurry up, we've wasted enough time."

"Wha- Naru!?"

Trailing after him, Mai huffed when he refused to elaborate further. What a jerk. Just once she would appreciate it if he could give her a straight answer.

Stepping into the room she assumed they would be using for their base, she was relieved to note that it looked like it used to be some sort of staff room. Off to the side was a kitchenette that she could use without having to leave the base. That would make things much easier – nothing good _ever _happened when she went to make tea.

Setting down the monitor on the same desk space that Naru had, she glanced around at the rest of the room, noting where everything was. There was a table next to the kitchenette that they would be able to use, and there were two couches with a coffee table in the middle, so they weren't lacking in places to sit down.

But something about everything still felt wrong.

Maybe it was just because of how shaken she still was from her earlier experience but something about everything just didn't seem right.

As if sensing her trepidation at where this case was going to go, Mai could hear the loud voices of Bou-san and Ayako arguing down the hall and moving closer.

Relaxing a little, she turned towards the door just in time to see them enter, smiling at them when they stopped arguing to greet her.

"Mai! How are you?" Bou-san asked, crossing the room to pull her into crushing hug until Ayako used a well placed hit to force him to let her down.

"I'm good! How are you guys?" she asked when she had her breath back.

Ayako huffed. "I would be better if I knew what we were doing in this creepy place. I don't suppose Naru has explained the case to you – has he?" she asked.

Shaking her head, Mai deflated at the reminder. "This is Naru we're talking about – he never tells me anything."

Both adults made a sympathetic noise.

"If you lot are done gossiping, there's still more things to unpack from the vans," Naru informed them coldly, stepping into the room with his arms full of equipment.

Flushing at the scold Mai sighed.

"Come on Bou-san, Ayako. We'd better get a move on before Naru glares us to death," she joked, grabbing their arms to drag them through the door, not turning around to receive the full glare that she could feel being directed at her retreating back.

Bou-san whistled. "Feeling feisty today, Mai?" he joked.

"Naru's just been more annoying than usual," she grumbled.

"Well you just let Bou-san know if you need anything and I'll sort it right out – even if it means facing down the demon himself."

Giggling, Mai smiled at him even as she heard Ayako insult the man for speaking about himself in third-person. "Thanks Bou-san."

Sighing dramatically, Ayako rolled her eyes. "Idiots, the both of you," she lamented.

Grabbing another monitor from the van, Mai only laughed, already feeling much more uplifted then she had before they'd arrived.

"Where are Masako and John?" she wondered aloud.

Ayako narrowed her eyes at the mention, scoffing. "The princess and John won't be here until tomorrow. Masako is scheduled to film for her show today and John can't get away from the church until tomorrow, so they'll be coming together. Enjoy the peace while it lasts," she suggested.

Giggling, Mai conceded to the point before continuing to chat away with them as they made the trip back inside. It was a good half-an-hour later that Mai found herself standing in the kitchenette preparing some tea for everyone, mostly on auto-pilot. Too busy thinking about what exactly could be so important that they'd rushed out to this case the day after they'd received it, she almost poured the hot water all over her hand before she managed to shake herself from her thoughts.

Filling the teapot, she placed it onto the tray that she had grabbed before with the other cups before settling it onto the table. Pouring out a cup, she immediately passed it to Naru, not at all surprised when he took from her rather quickly.

Pouring out some more tea, she offered everyone their cup before pouring herself one and settling in to finally receive an explanation on the case (and hopefully on whatever the hell had happened earlier).

"You have noticed the construction equipment that's around the side of the building," Naru started finally, notebook open in front of him.

Mai had not, but she was too busy dealing with how she'd felt since she got here, she wagered, so she wasn't too worried about missing that. (It didn't mean that she was going to mention that, though.)

"This land that this building is on has been purchased with the intent to turn it into an _onsen_. They attempted to start the process two weeks ago now and they have encountered problem after problem every time they try to work. In the beginning they were just experiencing screaming and crying sounds, then their equipment started breaking down. At first it would only break overnight, but since the spirit seems to have gotten more aggressive and has started breaking the equipment whenever it's been left alone for even a moment.

"A couple of the workers have reported seeing a girl wandering the halls, and then this happened." Pulling out a couple of photos, he placed them on the coffee table so that they could grab it and have a look.

When Ayako passed them over to Mai, she couldn't help the way her eyes widened at the sight of the words written on the walls. It looked like it was blood and the words she could make out read 'Leave Us Alone'.

"At least they were clear about what they want?" Mai joked, trying not to shiver as the words echoed in her mind – a reminder of what she thought she'd imagined earlier.

Naru scoffed. "Quite clear. So clear, in fact, that the day after this happened, the next worker to enter the building found himself being dragged from one end of the hallway to the other."

This time Mai wasn't the only one to look surprised. That was quite an escalation, but at least it explained why they were heading to this case so quickly.

"After that, none of the workers were willing to enter the property, so the land's owner had no choice but to seek some outside help if they ever want their _onsen_ to be built," Naru continued.

"So they contacted you," Bou-san nodded, understanding dawning.

Naru nodded. "So they contacted me. Given the current understanding of the case, no-one is to be alone in this place at any point in time. Is that clear?"

The pointed look towards Mai made her huff, but she had to admit (in her mind at least) that he was right to worry about her running off – she did have something of a record after all.

That didn't mean he needed to single her out though!

When Naru was sure that they all understood, he motioned towards the cameras.

"Bou-san, Mai, I want you to walk around and set the cameras up. Be sure to take the room temperatures while you're at it. Take Matsuzaki-san with you, see if either of you can sense anything and be _careful_."

Once more that last part was clearly directed at Mai and it made Bou-san and Ayako snicker.

"I'm always careful!" Mai protested. "I can't help it that trouble seems to find me no matter what."

Naru scoffed. "Trouble would be correct."

"You are such a-"

"Now now, Mai. Let's just get the cameras and get this started. No need to argue," Bou-san cut in before she could finish that statement.

It wasn't until they'd left the base, their arms filled with cameras on tripods that Mai realised she'd forgotten to ask Naru to explain what might have caused her earlier fear and anger when she'd stepped into the building.

It was frustrating thing to realise, but she supposed she'd just have to remember to ask Naru about it when they got back.

Letting her thoughts wander, she frowned at how dim everything was, poorly lit by lanterns since they were removed from the main power supply for their demolition. Their base was running through a generator so she supposed it was only logical; it just seemed to add to the eerie atmosphere and she'd rather it... didn't.

"Leave us alone."

The whispered words shocked Mai into stumbling, nearly making her fall to the floor with her hands full of expensive cameras.

"Are you alright Mai?" Bou-san asked.

"Fine. Just being clumsy – nothing new," she covered. Part of Mai wanted her to mention the voices that she was hearing, but for whatever reason another part of her was firmly against it.

It was an odd thing to experience and after how things had gone earlier that day with her emotions, she wasn't sure if she should trust that feeling. On the flip side, however, she tried not to ignore her feelings ever and she wasn't sure she wanted to hear what might happen if she _did_ mention it.

She let her uncertainty fade into the background for the moment, instead turning her attention to their current tasks, sighing as she realised that there were three separate floors, all with an obnoxious amount of rooms to temp. And unlike the cameras which they were only placing the basics of until they had more information, she would have to temp every single room.

It was not going to be fun.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Mai had been very correct. It was almost two hours later before they even made it to the third floor and at this point Mai was thoroughly annoyed that she'd had to temp so many rooms. There was only one camera left to set up since Naru wanted on to film the hallway and the stairs, but she knew that there were another sixteen rooms to take temperatures on this floor as well.

Groaning, she didn't even bother to pretend that she wasn't exhausted, gaining a laugh from both of her adult friends.

"Hey Ayako, have you sensed anything so far?" Mai asked, recalling Naru's request. Personally she thought that he'd sent her with them so that he wouldn't have to deal with her whining but she wasn't about to say as much.

Ayako shrugged slightly, sighing. "I'm not a medium, Mai. The trees have told me that there was a great sadness here, so hopefully we'll know more soon enough."

"The trees talk?"

"If you know how to listen to them, then yes." Ayako ignored the way that Bou-san snickered at her explanation.

Sighing, Mai nodded. "Does that mean that there are enough trees and they're old enough for you to preform a proper purification if necessary."

"She's asking whether or not you're actually going to be useful for once-"

A well placed kick to the monk's shin ended that tease rather quickly and Mai shook her head at how childish they were.

And she was meant to be the child? If she didn't think they'd catch her, she'd snort at the very concept.

"If you lot are done being children, I believe there are more rooms to temp." It wasn't a question and Mai jumped at Naru's cold tone through the walkie-talkie. She could have hit herself for forgetting that there was a microphone with this camera so Naru had been listening to them this entire time.

"Maa, you're such a workaholic," Bou-san huffed. Despite his words though, he led them towards the first of many rooms for Mai to temp, humming to himself as they went.

With a sigh, Mai trailed after him, resigned to her fate for the afternoon.

_'It could be worse.'_

She should have known better than to jinx it.

A few hours later, a couple hours after they had finally finished taking the temperatures, Mai found herself walking around the building with just Naru in complete silence.

That in and of itself might have been fine if Naru had explained to her _why_ they were wandering around the building in complete silence.

"Naru," she whined when he made to go up the second flight of stairs for the _forth_ time that afternoon, "what exactly are we _doing?"_

Rolling his eyes, Naru sighed. "We're walking, Mai. I thought that was quite clear."

"But _why_?"

"The reports said that most of the activity seemed to happen on the first floor, but for some reason the blood writing incident happened on the _third_ floor. I'm trying to figure out why."

"By walking up and down the stairs aimlessly?" Mai asked incredulously.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Yeah – we could just wait for something to happen instead of trying to _trigger_ it."

A smirk tugged at Naru's lips and Mai huffed at the amusement she could see in his eyes.

"It's almost like you're scared, Mai. Should I go back to base and grab someone else instead?" he baited.

Mai's cheeks coloured but she stood her ground on the point she was making. "_You_ aren't the one that's going to get dragged around if the spirit decides that they're sick of having people wander around their home," she hissed.

For a moment Mai thought that Naru might have actually paused at that idea before he waved off her concern. "The dragging happened on the _first_ floor Mai," he reminded.

"Doesn't mean it won't happen on this floor as well," she grumbled. Despite that though, she didn't raise any more complaints, following after Naru without further complaint as they investigated each room, one by one.

"By the way Naru," Mai started as they entered the room closest to the stairs, "you _still_ haven't explained to me what happened earlier with me freezing up."

Glancing over at Mai, there was something calculating in his gaze – something that made her want to hide away.

"What do _you_ think it was?" he asked finally.

Mai frowned. "I don't know, Naru, that's why I'm asking."

She didn't hear him sigh but from the way his shoulders dropped just the smallest amount she knew that he was exasperated.

"Think about it properly for a moment and take a guess. Hypothesise, Mai."

Wrinkling her nose, Mai wanted to argue but with the stern look Naru was giving her right now, she was almost positive that he would just refuse to tell her anything else until she'd done as he asked.

Resigned, she followed Naru down the stairs, muttering under her breath as she considered what she knew.

It had been sudden and without warning and it had happened the moment she'd stepped into the building. Something about it had been similar to when she experienced a first person dream; she could tell they weren't her emotions, and yet they were?

It was confusing in the moment and it was even more confusing to remember.

Caught up in her thoughts, Mai didn't notice when her foot missed the last step on the stairs. A second later, she let out a yelp when she found herself falling forwards.

Glancing over at the noise, Naru barely managed to steady himself in time to catch Mai, grunting at the sudden weight combined with the addition of gravity and acceleration.

"Is it really that hard for you to think and walk at the same time, Mai?" Naru asked, voice blank despite how amused he was. Of course for a moment he'd been terrified but seeing the way Mai was flushed and stuttering he was positive that she wasn't even fazed by her own clumsiness at this point.

Figures.

Stepping back when he was certain that she wasn't going to fall again, Naru rolled his eyes as she attempted to stutter out an offended excuse.

"I just missed a step – it happens," she huffed.

"It happens to you more often then anyone else," Naru pointed out.

Mai didn't have a response to that so instead she just pouted, looking at the ground.

"At this point, I suppose I would have been surprised if you _didn't_ try to fall down the stairs-"

"I wasn't _trying_ to-"

Naru continued undeterred, "–but if you could save it for at least the third day for once, I would appreciate it."

"You're such a jerk!" Mai hissed, stamping her foot in irritation.

Raising an eyebrow, Naru smirked. "I understand that the truth is hard to hear but there really is no reason to get so angry over it."

Mai's eyebrow twitched, her face tinting bright red in her anger before she stamped her foot and then turned to head back to the first floor; feet falling harder on every step then necessary.

Amused as he was, Naru didn't even bother to stop Mai when she made her way back to base instead of continuing to walk around the building.

Collapsing into a seat, Mai glared at Naru as he settled into his seat once more. She could see the smug amusement on his face and she cursed herself for raising to his bait so easily.

_'Just once, I wish I didn't make it so easy,'_ she cursed herself.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The rest of the day passed by in relative silence. There wasn't any spiritual activity to speak of, and they were all left feeling drained after a long day of getting set up and researching.

Blinking tiredly, Mai yawned, her eyes blurring from how they watered.

"I think we should call it a night, Naru, before you end up having to carry Mai to her bed for the night," Bou-san suggested, joking tone going over Mai's head as she struggled to stay awake.

There was a sheet of paper in front of her but she'd long stopped being able to understand the shapes on it.

The hand on her shoulder seems to come out of no-where and looking up it takes Mai a moment to recognise Ayako's amused face.

"Come on Mai. Let's head to bed now."

On instinct, Mai turned towards where Naru was sitting to check if that was okay, only to receive an eye-roll.

"Go to bed, idiot. You'll be useless tomorrow if you don't get some rest."

A pout formed on her lips but Mai couldn't bring herself to argue. Instead she pushed herself up from the couch she was seated on, her body feeling like lead as she wished everyone a goodnight and trailed after Ayako, more focused on putting one foot in front of the other then anything around her.

It seemed like ages before they reached the room that Ayako and she had set up a little bit earlier and claimed as theirs – despite knowing intellectually that it was just down the hall. It was simple, most likely it had been one of the rooms for staff that had lived in the building while working there.

It had been easy enough to roll their futons out onto the floor (both girls agreeing that they were not chancing the old mattresses) and throw their things down. At the time it had seemed adequate but now that she was this tired, Mai could almost have cried from how fluffy the bedding looked and how comfortable everything was probably going to feel.

"Hurry up and get into bed, Mai. The sooner we sleep, the better."

Humming at Ayako's words, Mai practically fell onto her futon, shifting around until she was under the covers and sighing as she felt like she was sinking into it. Distantly, she thought her heard Ayako wishing her good night but she was too far gone to be sure.

Somehow the night seemed to pass by faster than Mai could have imagined. Her body felt sluggish as she woke from her sleep; almost as if she hadn't managed to sleep a wink.

In the back of her mind the image of an older looking teenage girl covered in blood flashed; a memory or something more?

Mai shivered at the thought. She felt like she'd dreamed in some ways but in other ways she didn't. It was confusing and after the debacle yesterday she wasn't quite sure how to feel about that.

It wasn't the first time that she'd woken from a dream like this and been unsure as to whether or not it was actually a dream; it was the first time she'd felt so completely drained.

Rolling over, she willed the image away, pushing it into the depths of her mind as she stared instead at Ayako's still slumbering form. What time was it anyway?

Shifting, she quietly sat up and moved to look through her things, trying to locate her phone.

It took a couple of minutes but when she finally managed to find it, Mai couldn't help her noise of victory before she clamped a hand over her own mouth at the noise Ayako made in response.

Pressing the home button, she blinked for a moment at the sudden brightness before being very glad at the hand still over her mouth at the startled noise that left her. It was almost nine in the morning!

Why had Naru let them sleep this long?

Glancing over at Ayako, Mai frowned at how deep into her sleep her friend appeared. She was loathe to wake her, but Mai was sure that Naru's patience would run out soon if they didn't appear.

Her hand dropped from her mouth and she let her phone rest on her pillow before she crawled over to Ayako.

Gently, she shook her friend before shaking her harder when Ayako didn't respond.

"Ayako, you need to wake up. We're already late and Naru's going to be mad enough as it is," she warned.

Groaning, Ayako turned over. "I don't care. That kid can get over it just this once. I'm _tired_."

Mai huffed. "You can tell him that yourself, but I for one am not looking to get into trouble."

"This time."

"Hey!"

Wincing at Mai's loud voice, Ayako sighed. "Fine, fine. I'm getting up now leave me alone for a moment and get changed."

"Fine."

With that sorted, it wasn't too much later that the pair found themselves walking down the hall and into base.

"The sleeping beauty awakens," Bou-san teased, looking up from whatever he was reading over.

"Don't you mean sleeping beauties?" Ayako wondered.

Bou-san titled his head in confusion, smirk tugging at his lips. "No."

Narrowing her eyes as she considered this, she let out a loud shriek of anger when she realised what Bou-san meant. "You stupid old man, how dare you?" she raged.

Mai sighed at their antics, still trying to wake up and not at all ready to listen to their arguing.

"If you're done being children, we have some work to get to," Naru informed them coldly, cutting off whatever Bou-san was about to reply. "Mai, tea."

Nodding, Mai didn't bother to argue as she made her way over to their kitchenette and set the kettle on the heat, pulling everything out to make a pot of tea.

"Did anything happen last night?" Mai asked instead, leaning against the counter as she continued to wait for the water to heat.

Looking over at her, Naru nodded. "Last night, blood writing appeared on a wall on the third floor sometime after two this morning. The camera was knocked over and wasn't able to capture anything but when Lin and I went to check it this morning we discovered the writing."

"Can I take a look?" Mai asked, a little surprised at her own eagerness and unable to figure out _why_ she wanted to see it; she just knew that she needed to.

After a moment of consideration, Naru agreed. "I'll take you to have a look after I've had my tea."

Smiling, Mai turned back to said tea and poured out the water so that said tea could start to steep.

"Did anything else happen?" Ayako inquired.

Naru turned his attention to her. "Microphone three on the first floor managed to catch the sound of a someone whispering something but most of it sound like static and neither Lin nor I can make out what they're saying."

Ayako hummed. "Interesting."

"Teas ready," Mai informed them all as she carefully made her way over to the coffee tables to set them down, offering Naru's his cup before grabbing her own and leaving the others to grab their own.

"So what's the game plan for today?" Bou-san prompted.

Naru looked considering for a moment. "I'll take Mai to have a look at the blood writing after this. John and Masako are due to arrive sometime before lunch. Around that time Yasuhara is due for a video call – he has some information on the history of this building to share. Everything else is dependent on what happens this morning. You are free to do as you please outside of conducting any exorcisms – we cannot know how the spirit may react just yet. Make sure you stay in at least pairs if you leave base," he reminded.

"So I'm stuck with this old hag," Bou-san sighed, pretending to be put-out by this fact.

Mai hid her snicker behind her cup of tea as she sipped the last of it, savouring the feeling of warmth in her stomach.

Getting up, she placed her own cup into the sink in the kitchenette for later. Grabbing a nut bar, she munched away on that while she waited for them to sort out how they were going to spend their morning.

It wasn't too much later that Mai found herself in much the same position as the day before, walking up the stairs back to the third floor for what felt like the thousandth time. This time, however, she was all too aware that she'd asked for it.

Finally getting to the top, she sighed in relief, her legs still aching from their endless trips the day before. All of that was quickly forgotten though when she turned her attention towards the crimson writing on the wall. It had bled in many places, but the kanji's were unmistakable.

Frowning, Mai stepped closer, curious. For some reason, when Naru has mentioned blood writing she imagined something more like what occurred on the cursed doll case. Instead, the previously white wall was _filled_ with blood writing telling them to leave.

An image of a little girl flashed in her mind but it was gone a moment later, leaving Mai to frown as she fought the urge to trace the writing with her fingers, tracing every line of the kanjis with her mind.

"What is it? Are you getting something from the writing?" Naru asked, watching Mai carefully.

Shaking her head, Mai glanced back at him over her shoulder. "Not really. But did you realise that these were written by separate people?"

Naru frowned, stepping closer to look at the kanji but it was no good – they all looked the same to him and what differences he could make out didn't really scream 'different handwriting' to him.

"Are you sure?" he asked, voice sceptical. "Is this an instinct thing?"

Mai snorted at that. "No, Naru, it's not an instinct thing but yes, I am sure. Look at the curve on those strokes and compare them to the strokes from there. The length is also completely different and the weight applied is different as well," she pointed out, moving her hand to show him were just a couple of the differences could be found.

"The stroke order on some of these is wrong as well, like they were copying the word but only guessing the order."

"You can tell?"

Mai shrugged. "Sure. It's not that difficult."

Despite how he didn't agree, Naru just nodded in acceptance. If Mai was certain then he was willing to believe it.

"If this was written by multiple spirits, then that would mean that there's more than one spirit here. We'll need to figure out if they're just trapped here or it they're remaining for a different reason," Naru mused.

Mai thought about it for a moment, considering how little they knew currently. At least when Masako arrived she might be able to tell them how many spirits were here and maybe she could even tell them whether the spirits were remaining willingly or if they were trapped.

"Before we head back to base I want to check each of the rooms to make sure that nothing changed in any of them," Naru added when he spotted Mai moving to head back downstairs.

Groaning, Mai turned around and headed back towards Naru reluctantly.

Why did she always get stuck in these situations?

Despite her whining, it didn't take too long for them to check the rooms and make sure that nothing had changed.

Approaching the last door, Mai frowned when she pushed it open.

"Is there something wrong?" Naru asked.

Shaking her head, Mai looked over everything, ignoring the weird feeling in her stomach. It felt like this room was important, but she wasn't sure _how_.

"Nothing looks like it's changed but I want to get a better look," Mai admitted, pushing the door open more and stepping inside. There wasn't much light from the small window, nor was there much from the hallways and it made everything feel all the more eerie.

Her eyebrows stayed creased as she looked over everything. Something was telling her that there was something in here that she needed to find but she couldn't see _anything_ that could be of importance.

"Are you getting something from this room?" Naru asked, the sudden voice making her jump.

Spinning, she stumbled back a little, cheeks flushed when she realised just how close Naru had been to her. When had he moved anyways?

Sighing in resignation, Naru tried not to sound as amused as he felt when he spoke. "Is it possible for me to take you anywhere without you hurting yourself?"

_'You could take me on a date,'_ her mind helpfully supplied before she managed to crush that thought.

_'Not now,'_ she hissed to herself.

Raising an eyebrow at how much darker Mai's cheeks appeared, Naru shrugged it off and instead gave her a pointed look. "Well?"

"Well what?" Mai asked.

"Are you getting anything from this room?" Naru repeated impatiently.

Mai hummed. "Sort of. It's weird. I feel like there's something more to this room but I can't figure it out," she explained, pulling her bottom lip into her mouth to chew thoughtfully on it. "It feels like I'm missing something right in front of me but I don't know what."

"Do you think if we wait, you could figure it out?"

Thinking about it for a moment, Mai finally shook her head slowly. "I don't think so," she said finally. "The feeling passed already."

"In that case we'd best be heading back to base."

Mai nodded in agreement, all to aware that they'd been gone longer much longer than either of them had planned.

Stepping towards the door, she faltered when she heard a distant sobbing noise. In an instant, she was turned back towards the bookshelf that was sitting at the back of the office. By the time she'd turned around, however, it was silent once more.

"Mai?" Naru called from over at the door.

Shaking herself, Mai smiled sheepishly at him and picked-up the pace. "Sorry Naru. Just thought I heard something."

Narrowing his eyes, Naru nodded after a moment and didn't comment. Hopefully it wasn't anything important.

The journey back to base only took a moment and Mai couldn't help but grin when she spotted John and Masako sitting on one of the couches, sipping away at some tea.

"Just in time you two. Yasu's going to be ready for a video call in five minutes," Ayako informed them from her spot on the couch.

"You were gone longer than we expected," Bou-san teased. "We were getting ready to send out the search party."

Mai huffed. "Ha ha, Bou-san," she dead panned. "We just wanted to make sure that the blood writing hadn't appeared anywhere else."

"Did you find out anything interesting?" Masako asked, cutting off whatever Bou-san was about to say.

"We'll discuss that when we have Yasuhara-san and have all the information." Naru moved to take a seat in front of the web cam. "Mai, tea."

Mai hummed, unsurprised as she headed off to make the tea without complaint.

Five minutes later they were all crowded behind Naru, waving hello to a cheery Yasu.

"What have you found out?" Naru asked. From experience he was certain that if he gave them too much freedom then they would de-rail the conversation completely and he'd never get the information he was after in a timely manner.

"Right, Big Boss. So, according to the information I found, the building you guys are currently investigating was built in 1939 and it was one of the few mental institutions available at the time. It was founded by Amamiya Tatsuo. The Amamiya Institute was originally only used to house those who were considered dangerous and beyond help in terms of psychosis but after the second world war the influx of mental health patients increased dramatically due to the new laws.* As a result, the treatment of patients inside these facilities was extremely questionable and it was impossible to keep track of every patient.

"It wasn't until 1984 that this information came to light, though. But when it did it caused the Utsunomiya scandal** where it was revealed that many patients had died from maltreatment; this included being beaten to death, as well as death from starvation. Near as I can tell, the reason for the Amamiya Institute was being investigated for the same or similar reasons before it was shut down."

"Did they ever find anything? This place shut down long before that scandal right?" Bou-san asked.

Yasu nodded. "Yeah. The Amamiya Institute was shut down in 1963 but it wasn't because of a scandal like that. You might find this interesting but the some of the employees started to go missing. While it seemed no-one cared when the patients disappeared, the workers definitely started to notice the lack of their team members. It wasn't long before they were quitting, forcing the institute to be shut down before any reports could be made. During all of this Tatsuo also disappeared and to this day, nobody is quite sure what happened to him."

Shivering slightly, Mai frowned at the new information, ignoring the way her stomach turned at the thought of what might have happened to the patients and the workers. There was more to this story, she could feel it, but Yasu seemed to have given them all the information that he had on the subject.

"It would be safe to assume that the workers and Tatsuo died here. The question is, who is still haunting this place. Is it them, or is it the patients that also went missing?"

"The patients." Masako and Mai had both spoken in unison but Naru turned to narrow his eyes at Mai without a thought.

"It just feels right!" Mai excuses herself quickly, already aware of why she was being glared at. She swallowed, hoping she sounded sincere despite the way a distant memory of a little girls scream resounded in her head and the way a reminder of the blood covered girl burned in her mind.

Just what had been happening here?

"You should also know, Naru, that the first thing I felt when I entered here was an overwhelming feeling of rage. I think it's coming from a teenage girl, but I can't be sure since her energy seems to come and go. I think her anger is so powerful that it's interrupting my senses," her voice was soft as she continued. "Something terrible happened here."

Naru turned his attention away from Mai to nod towards Masako in thanks for her input. "Yasuhara-san, I expect you to let me know if you find out any other information."

"You got it, Big Boss. I have to get back to work so I'll let you know if I do find something else. Don't have too much fun!"

Naru gave him an unamused look as they all chorused replies back, the window shutting a moment later.

"What do you think, Naru?"

Naru considered for a moment. "I think we still need more information. John, Takigawa-san. I want you two to go and set up a few more cameras in these places." Ripping a page from his notebook, he scribbled quickly and then passed them over to Bou-san. "Take Hara-san with you so that she can do a proper walk-through. At no point is anyone to be alone for _any_ reason. Clear?"

"Got it," John assured him, smiling kindly.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The rest of the afternoon and the night passed quietly and the morning found Mai blinking sleepily as she fixed tea for them all in the kitchenette once more, doing her best not to spill some hot water over herself. From the moment she had woken up, there had been a faint screaming in the back of her mind. It was similar to the scream she'd heard inside Amamiya's old office but now there was more than one person screaming.

It was disorienting and despite the way Mai thought it should be keeping her awake, it almost felt like it was lulling her to sleep.

"Mai!"

Snapping her attention over to Ayako, she tilted her head at the concerned look that was on her friends face. "Are you okay? Did you not sleep well?" she asked.

Mai shook her head, rubbing her eyes now that her hands were free of the kettle; tea steeping in front of her.

"No, I did. Apparently it's just one of those days when I feel more tired then usual. I'll wake up after a cup of tea, I'm sure."

"If you're sure..." Ayako trailed off.

Mai tried to smile, all too aware that it was probably as tired as she felt. "I am."

Carefully, Mai began to load up the tea cups and carried them over to the coffee table slowly – all too aware that her state of unbalance was probably going to make her natural clumsiness all the worse.

Relieved when she managed to set them down without tripping, she grabbed a cup and settled into the spot on the couch next to Bou-san. Taking a sip, she sighed at the warmth. The screaming was still there, but she wasn't ready starting to get used to it – even if she didn't understand _why_ she was hearing it. Clearly the other's couldn't.

"How did last night go?" Mai asked finally, when everyone else had their own cup of tea.

"Another camera was knocked over but this time it was on the first floor hallway. Takigawa-san, I want you and John to go and check on it. Take another one with you just in case it's broken, and a spare battery since whatever happened – the spirit most likely drained the one that it had," he informed them. "When you get back, we're going to go over our information and see if we can come up with some theories on what might be going on. From there, I may get you to perform an exorcism on some of the rooms with the most activity to see if we can trigger something."

Both men nodded in agreement.

"In that case, we'll get going right away. The sooner this case is solved, the better. This place is _creepy_,"Bou-san said, whispering his voice for the last part.

Naru was tempted to roll his eyes at that instead just offering an unamused glare.

Taking the hint, Bou-san and John quickly downed their tea before turning, placing their cups on the tray they'd taken them from before stopping to grab the required items and rushing out of base.

"What are we going to do in the meanwhile?" Mai asked.

Naru's narrowed eyes scanned the rest of their group before landing on Mai. He could understand Matsuzaki-san's concern when he took note of how sleepy Mai seemed to look despite going to bed at a reasonable time (by anyone's standards – not just his).

Wracking his brain, he tried to think of something simple enough for Mai to do without it being brain taxing.

As if sensing Naru's thoughts, Lin pointed towards the recording that they'd taken yesterday discreetly.

He didn't bother to acknowledge the amusement he could see in the slight quirk of Lin's lips, only grabbing his personal laptop and the set of headphones he used with it and walking towards Mai.

"Everyone else listened to this yesterday. I doubt you'll get anything other than static, but just in case."

Before he could pass it to her, Masako intercepted. "Let me have a listen first while Mai finishes her tea. I wasn't here after all."

Conceding to her, Naru let the medium take his laptop.

It was silent as she listened to the clip a few times before sighing.

"I can't hear anything either," she confirmed finally.

In the back of his mind, Naru can't help the unkind thought that he hadn't expected her to.

But that begged the question, did he expect Mai to?

There had been something off with her this entire case and he was almost positive that Mai had been keeping things from him but there wasn't much he could do until she chose to stop lying about it.

Passing the laptop across so that Mai could listen, he waited patiently as Mai covered her ears with the earphones and then hit play.

Listening carefully, Mai frowned when the static started and the _something_ happened in the background.

Replaying it, she turned up the sound and then waited. It was hard to hear over the screaming in the back of her mind but she tried to tune it out and focus.

"_Leave. Or we'll make you."_

Inhaling sharply, Mai replayed it once more to be sure and heard the same thing. A whispered female voice, strong and sure. There was something almost regretful about it but she had no doubt that whoever this spirit was, they were going to follow through with their threat.

Thinking about about John and Bou-san fixing the camera currently, Mai's eyes widened and a shiver ran down her spine. As if called by her unease, and image of John being dragged down the hallway and Bou-san chanting appeared in her mind for just a moment.

Throwing the headphones off, Mai placed the laptop beside her and shot up without a thought towards the looks everyone was giving her.

The screaming in her mind was slowly getting louder and it made her balance stumbled even as she headed for the base door.

She thought that people were talking to her – or trying to at least – but none of it was registering in her mind; unable to hear through the loudness in her head.

A hand grasped at her upper arm once she'd made it a little bit down the hall and Mai turned around only to be caught drowning in Naru's deep blue gaze.

His lips were moving but she couldn't register anything they were saying.

"John-san," was all she managed to say, tugging her arm in an attempt to loosen Naru's grip.

Instantly, Naru turned towards someone else and his mouth moved again. If she had been thinking straight she would have recognised that he was sending Lin to sort it out.

But she wasn't in her right mind. All she registered in the moment was a chance to break Naru's grip.

So that's exactly what she did.

Bounding down the hallway, the screaming seemed louder the closer she got, crying children in the back of her mind making it hard for her to think.

"Stop it," Mai whispered when noticed the hand grasping around John's ankle, readying to drag him. He was so distracted by her sudden appearance that he didn't seem to notice the cool feeling that was beginning to spread over him from the spirits touch.

"Stop it!" she shouted louder when John was pulled down, catching himself on his hands and knees.

A body seemed to materialise connected to that hand, cold eyes staring Mai down.

"Fine."

Before Mai could breathe a sigh of relief, she felt a cold hand reach around her own ankle, the woman's eyes looking deep into hers for a moment.

A memory of a bloodstained girl flashed in her mind before disappearing again.

"You'll do."

With that, her ankle was tugged harshly. A scream ripped from throat, joined quickly by the screaming she'd been hearing earlier. She hadn't even noticed when they had stopped.

That was the last thought that crossed her mind before blackness took over her mind.

It was quiet in base and for once Naru wished that it wasn't. He could still hear the way that Mai had screamed while being dragged down the hallway bouncing around in his mind and he would do almost anything to have something to drown it out.

Across the room, Bou-san got to his feet abruptly. "Okay, that's enough. We can't keep moping around here forever, we need to start thinking about how to get Mai back," he declared.

"Easier said than done," Ayako snarked but she was already beginning to look more lively.

"First, lets consider what we found. You never did tell us if there were any insights on the wall-writing incident." Bou-san directed the question towards Naru.

Naru nodded in agreement to what the monk was doing, considering the facts that he too knew. "Mai," and didn't saying her name just hurt almost as much as hearing her scream had? "said that the writing was written by different spirits."

Bou-san raised an eyebrow, "and how the hell did she manage that?"

It was a good question and personally, Naru would also appreciate having it answered. He was still reeling from the realisation himself. "You'll have to ask her for more details. She only gave me some cursory pointers on the way things had been written to explain it."

Across the room Masako lifted her hand in front of her mouth. "Now that you mention it, I can feel several spirits here. I hadn't realised it before since they all seem to be almost hiding behind the anger that the female projects but there are at least another six spirits in this place. Some of them feel younger but a couple, like the female, feel older."

"Interesting."

Detaching himself from his emotional stakes in this case, Naru tried to look at things from a logical standpoint. The first thing to do would be figure out where Mai is. The spirit didn't have enough power to take her too far away either, so Mai had to still be in the building somewhere. So he needed to have Lin look over the building floor plans and see if he can figure anything out.

He also needed to take away the variable of the other spirits. They might be feeding energy to the other spirit or they may just be trapped but he would rather not take chances on which it was.

"Matsuzaki-san," Naru said finally, "how would you feel about performing a cleansing of the spirits. I doubt it'll work on the main spirit but it would remove the other spirits from the equation."

Ayako nodded eagerly, keen to be of some use. "The trees here are old enough and should work well. I'll set up for it now," she agreed.

"Lin, I need you to look over the blueprint and see if there's anything suspicious that might link to when Mai has ended up," Naru continued.

"Already done," Lin interrupted. "Yasuhara-san mentioned earlier that he thought it odd that this was the first level and there was no mention of a basement or underground section despite how this building was built on the mountain."

Of course Lin had already investigating it.

"Unfortunately, even though logically there has to be a space beneath this floor, there is no mention or clue of where there's an entrance for it."

Naru hummed in understanding. "In that case we'll just have to check each of the rooms on the first floor."

"Got it," Bou-san agreed, already grabbing John's arm to drag him from the room.

Pushing up from his seat, Naru followed after them, intent on joining them.

They would find Mai. He just hoped they found her soon.

Mai blinked in the dim lighting as she slowly began to come to; nose wrinkling at the metallic tang of blood that was in the air. Groaning, she pushed herself up from the ground slowly, ignoring the way her body seemed to protest.

At least her mind was still quiet for now.

"Hello?" she called out finally. Her voice echoed around the room and she sighed when there was no response. What had she been expecting?

As she moved to stand, Mai blinked when she noticed the sight of a little girl peaching around the edge of the metal table that seemed to dominate this room.

A memory from her dream flashed through her mind and she swallowed thickly as she realised just where she was.

Suddenly the smell of blood made all too much sense.

"Hello there," Mai greeted finally, waving a little but staying low on the ground so that she wouldn't seem scary.

After a beat, the little girl slowly raised her hand to wave back before she seemed to turn around and run away. No foot steps followed after her. Mai hadn't really expected them to.

Getting up from the ground finally, she moved in the direction of where the girl had run to.

Stepping around the metal table, she reached a door and was shocked to find it unlocked.

Opening it, she cringed at the way is creaked loudly, the sound echoing. Peaking out the door, she frowned at the dimly lit hallway.

In the back of her mind she wondered how things were even this bright. There was no electricity and she hadn't spotted any lamps or candles either, but she quickly pushed that thought away in favour of more important questions.

Such as where she was and how she was going to get back to base.

"Naru is going to kill me," she groaned.

"We won't let anyone kill you."

The sudden additional voice made Mai jump and she turned around towards what had been an empty dead end only to be face to face with an older girl. She looked to be around her twenties and Mai recognised her as the girl she'd seen in her dream, covered in blood.

Fear began to coil in her gut and she swallowed thickly.

"You're scared of me," the other girl observed.

"Of course I'm scared of you," Mai replied finally, her anger getting the best of her. "You dragged me into this- this place! You hurt me already – who's to say what else you're going to do to me."

The girl frowned, almost as if she didn't understand what Mai was implying. "I am sorry for hurting you. I did not realise that you were one of us until afterwards. Forgive me?"

Forgive her? This was insane.

Closing her eyes, Mai took a deep breath. She was tempted to pinch herself and see if it turned out that this was all just a bad dream, but she knew better.

This wasn't a dream.

Then something occurred to Mai and she re-opened her eyes, suddenly much more confident. "What do you mean 'one of us'?"

"Gifted, of course."

Mai tilted her head frowning, "Gifted? You mean psychic?"

The girl hummed Mai took that to be a yes.

"This might sound harsh but, you are aware that you're dead, aren't you?"

The girl stared at her for a moment before nodding slightly. "I am. So are most of the others. We explained it to the younger ones but I don't think its ever clicked," she admitted.

"How many of you are there?"

"Too many," the girl admitted, voice grim. What was that supposed to mean?

"Come. You must meet everyone."

Mai was nodding in agreement before she'd even considered everything properly. She didn't get a chance to take it back, however, with the way the girl had started moving down the hallway before she could even think to take it back.

It was silent as they made their way through the maze of hallways to finally reach another dead end. There was a singular door to their left and the girl motioned for Mai to open it.

With a shuddering breath, Mai did exactly that, fingers grasping the rusted, cold iron gently and slowly turn the handle. It took a bit of strength to finally push the door in but when she finally did, Mai came face to face with a room _filled_ with spirits. Only a few of them looked older, most of them appearing to be between 6 to ten years old.

The little girl from earlier was in the middle, staring at her with wide eyes.

"Onee-san***?" she asked quietly, her head titled to the side.

It took a second for Mai to understand but when it dawned on her, she couldn't help but smile warmly at the little girl.

"Sure, I can be your Onee-san if you want."

The little girl seemed to light up at that, all previous shyness leaving her as she rushed up to Mai, her small fingers grasping Mai's hand and dragging her further into the room. "I'm Hanako," she introduced.

"I'm Mai."

"Mai-onee-san," Hanako cheered, before tilting her head again.

"Mai-onee-san, that's Akane-onee-san," she pointed to the girl that Mai had spoken with earlier before moving to point out each of the people in the room. "That's Shuji-onii-san, Naomi-onee-san, Daichi-kun, Rika-chan, Rin-san, Akio-kun, Emiko-chan, Kokoro-chan and Chiyo-chan."

Mai tried to take note of each other them, silently mouthing the names so she could remember them better.

"It's nice to meet you all," she wished, bowing slightly.

They bowed back, almost as if on auto-pilot and Mai couldn't help but smile at the sight.

"Hey Hanako, I'm going to need you to let go of Mai-san's hand so that I can talk with her some more," Akane said, stepping forwards.

Hanako pouted, gripping harder at Mai's hand, cold fingers clutching desperately at her palm. "But why can't you talk with Mai-onee-san _here,"_ she complained.

Smiling slightly, Akane sighed. "I suppose I could. But you know, Hanako, Mai-san might want to speak with me in private."

The younger girls eyes widened and she looked up at Mai. "Is that true, Mai-onee-san?"

A quick glance revealed to Mai what might happen if she disagreed, so she smiled apologetically down at Hanako. "I'm afraid so, Hanako-chan. But we won't talk for long and then you can hold my hand all you want," she promised.

Hanako seemed to deliberate for a moment before finally releasing Mai's hand. "Fine."

"Come this way, Mai-san. I'll show you where we can talk," Akane prompted, stepping further into the room and walking over to a nearby door opening it to reveal another hallway.

Mai followed after her silently, smiling to everyone as she left the room for the moment. The hallways was short and at the end was another room. Stepping inside it, Mai couldn't help but jump when the door swung shut behind them loudly.

"What do you want to know?" Akane asked finally.

Biting her lip, Mai considered the question seriously. What did she want to know?

"Everything."

Akane observed her for a moment silently before nodding. "It's not a pretty story but if that's what you want."

With those simple words, she stepped forwards and pressed a hand to Mai's forehead. A moment later, Mai could feel her eyes drooping before darkness took over her mind.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

_Waking up in her dreamscape this time wasn't a shock. Turning, she smiled at Akane who offered a slight smile back. "You're sure you're ready to see this?" she checked. There was concern in the girls voice and Mai tried to smile reassuringly._

"_I'm sure."_

_Taking a deep breath, Akane nodded. "Very well."_

_Almost as soon as the words had left Akane's mouth everything around Mai seemed to swirl until a scene formed and she found herself standing in the middle of it._

_She was behind a set of rusting metal bars and her wrists and ankles felt weighted down by cold metal. A quick glance down revealed that she was in cuffs that connected to a chain in the corner of a room, preventing her from going anywhere. Where she would go with those metal bars in her way she wasn't sure._

_It took a moment for her to register that she was Akane right now._

_'Focus,' she scolded herself._

_Turning her attention elsewhere, Mai's eyes widened at the sight of the metal table from the room she'd woken in earlier that day. It was familiar but the sigh of a teenage boy – was that Shuji-san? – struggling on the table was new and so was the way crimson blood seemed to be pooling on the surface and slowly dripping down the edges of the table._

_The sound in the background made Mai want to gag, an image of Urado coming to mind._

_A loud groan echoed around the room and almost instantly Mai felt Akane's body start to struggle, yanking against her bindings until they rubbed her wrists raw._

"_Now now, there's no need for that, Little A-Ka-Ne. You're turn will come soon enough but I can't pay attention to you all day," a voice scolded. There was a dark and amused lilt to the way the man spoke. It was dangerous and it made a shiver run down 'her' spine._

_The struggling stopped but Mai felt her eyes lift from the ground to look at the man. His eyes watched her every movement and a moment later there was a pressure coming from inside herself. It was... weird. It was a burning sensation but it wasn't hot and it didn't really hurt her._

_It passed and a moment later the chains she'd been unable to break seemed to shatter, a glowing light surrounding her wrists._

_There was a tsking noise before the man sighed. "Very well. If you want to be like that then I suppose we can end Shuji's session early," he conceded. A smirk tugged at his lips. "Do it again, A-Ka-Ne."_

_It was an order and Mai found 'herself' rankled by it even as the power build inside her once more. This time the bars in front of her bent and warped._

_The man clapped."Magnificent. You can do better though."_

_With narrowed eyes 'Mai' scowled. She could already feel herself becoming light-headed from her previous two demonstrations._

_The man sighed and looked towards the cell next to hers. "I suppose if you wont then I'm sure Hanako-chan would be willing to perform for me. What do you think?"_

_There was almost no build up this time at her abilities spread through her body and reach out to the table in the middle of the room. Sometime during in their conversation Shuji had been removed from it – where to she wasn't sure. One movement and the entire thing warped again, the table bending easily._

_Her head was getting light-headed again but the man in front of her looked only vaguely amused._

_'Not enough,' 'Mai' thought – although she was sure it wasn't a thought of her own._

_Her fingers curled tighter and the table warped more, the air thick with charged energy. Her eyes blurred and Mai recognised the feeling of passing out too late._

_In the back of her mind, Mai could here herself think, 'Was it enough?'_

_Slowly, 'Mai' awoke from slumber. The room was dark but on the table in the middle of the room was a new table, covered in fresh blood. The smell of copper in the air made her gag and she could almost _taste_ the way it felt on her tongue._

_In the middle of the blood was a small body and Mai felt herself turn cold as she froze in place._

_'It wasn't enough,' she realised._

_As this thought clicked, the emptiness seemed to come first, an overwhelming feeling of nothingness and it was disconcerting to Mai until she felt anger begin to rise. Slowly and then all of a sudden in one hit._

_An anguished scream tore from 'her' throat, Akane's abilities burning a path through 'her' system. The walls around her began to bend and the metal creaked as it was forced in unintended directions._

_Standing next to the body was Hanako._

_It didn't take a medium to realise that Hanako had died._

_The following scenes seemed to fly by, almost like Mai was watching the frames of a flashback. These images seemed older and they appeared to be similar situations where Akane had watched everyone die, over and over again._

_Then everything flashed forwards and the last thing Mai saw before she left her dreamland was Hanako and Akane holding hands in the middle of the room, blood splattering every surface and metal warped beyond recognition._

_And although Mai's stomach turned at the thought of the gruesome death that the people responsible for the children's deaths suffered; a small part of her felt vindicated by their deaths and it was hard to shake the thought that they had it coming._

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It had been hours since they'd begun looking for Mai, going from room to room on the first floor and checking every possible way a door might have been concealed there. The office was the final reason and Naru itched to hurry things along.

"It has to be in here," Bou-san whispered. There was a determined look on his face and Naru had to admit he felt much the same.

Stepping inside the room, they fanned out immediate. They pulled books and checked behind paintings.

Examining every inch of the room, Naru was almost ready to tear the room apart – he could feel himself slowly losing control – when he spotted it. It was almost impossible to have noticed but an image of Mai staring intently at the bookcase popped into his mind.

On the floor were some scuff marks. Mostly impossible to see, but he was looking for them specifically. Checking over the bookcase, he frowned when he couldn't see a possible way for it to turn into a door.

Running his fingers over the seams another time to be sure, he sighed.

"Found something?" John asked, walking over to take a look.

"Perhaps," he conceded.

At his words Bou-san practically bolted over. Looking over the scuff marks, the older man hummed.

"Maybe it isn't the bookcase," he suggested finally. Stepping to the side, the monk's face pinched in effort as he attempted to move the steal filing cabinet that was sitting next to it.

For a moment they'd held their breath, waiting to see if anything would happen, only for the sound of something releasing to finally allow Bou-san to shift the filing cabinet and reveal an old looking ladder.

"Got it," Bou-san celebrated for a moment.

"Good job," Naru said finally. Grabbing his walkie-talkie he relayed the information to Lin. "Is Matsuzaki-san ready to reform the cleansing?"

"I am," Ayako responded after a beat. "I'll go and get into place."

"We'll start to head towards Mai. Let us know when you're in position," Naru ordered.

"Naru, it might be better to wait," Lin cautioned. While intellectually Naru knew that was likely the case, part of him was torn.

"We'll keep him safe, Lin-san. But none of us want to wait any longer to get to Mai," Bou-san insisted, John backing him up a second later.

"Fine."

If he were more open with his emotions then Naru would have winced at how passive-aggressive Lin sounded, but he didn't concern himself with that for now. He had bigger concerns.

"I'll head down first to test the ladder," Naru informed. "Then John can follow and you should come down last, Takigawa-san."

Both men nodded in agreement and watched in anticipation as Naru finally began to descend into the dark corridor below.

When he made it to the bottom he waited as both of the men followed after him carefully. Soon enough they were beginning their walk down the short hallway that opened into a room.

Naru frowned at how the room seemed to be dimly lit but found himself distracted by the blood stains every where.

"They most likely kept the patients here. For what reason, I couldn't be sure."

"Let's keep moving," John suggested.

Naru nodded before he began to lead them through the room and down the next passageway which was also dimly lit. There were a few more rooms as they went along, but a brief check into each of them revealed that they were empty.

"Ready," Ayako spoke suddenly, causing Bou-san to jump.

"Good. Begin," Naru ordered. Up ahead there was a room that appeared to be dimly lit as well and he had a good feeling about what it was.

As his finger grasped the cold metal handle to the door finally, he swung it open and the first feeling he felt was relief, at the sight of Mai. And then there was anger, slowly rising at the sight of her laying on the ground seemingly sleeping.

Numerous brain injuries occurred in his mind as he traced over each of the bruises and cuts he could see with his eyes.

"Mai."

In the background he could see the spirits of children and some young adults floating towards where he knew Matsuzaki-san was performing her cleansing but he couldn't care less as he moved towards Mai.

"Mai," he repeated, voice stronger this time. "Wake up."

"-up."

Groaning, Mai shifted a little in her sleep, her mind still processing everything that she'd learnt in her dreamscape. Her mind felt sluggish and she could already feel her body aching from everything that it had been put though in the past few hours.

"Thank God."

That sounded like John-san, she noted absently. Wait. John? Eyes snapping open, her head spun as she sat up too quickly, turning her head for a better look. Sure enough, standing right there was John, Bou-san and Naru.

Moving to get up, Mai blinked as she glanced down at her hand to find it being clutched by Hanako.

"Hanako-chan?"

The little girls eyes seemed to light up at the realisation that Mai had woken up. "Mai-onee-san!" she cheered. "I was so worried! You slept for a very long time and Akane-onee-san looked really sad. Were you going to sleep forever like some of the others?"

It was such an innocent question but it made Mai ache at the memory of everything she'd just learnt. "No, I'm not going to sleep forever," she promised.

Hanako nodded like that was the most logical thing ever. "That's good. Akane-onee-san gets sad whenever I mention the others sleeping forever so you have to make sure not to because we don't want Akane-onee-san to be sad. Right?" she lectured, tone and expression adorably stern.

Mai nodded solemnly. "Of course," she agreed looking up at Akane over Hanako's head, "I would never want that."

"I'm sorry. I didn't even think to make sure you were laying down," Akane apologised.

Smiling, Mai shook her head. "It's fine," she promised. "I forgive you."

She wasn't just talking about this incident and clearly Akane knew that because tears began to well in her eyes before she bowed deeply.

Turning towards Hanako, Mai smiling kindly. "Hey Hanako-chan, do you want to go somewhere with Akane-onee-san?" she suggested.

Hanako titled her head in consideration. "Where are we going?" she asked finally.

"Some where warm and bright where you don't need to worry about anyone hurting you ever again," Mai explained.

Hanako bit her lip. "Are you coming too?"

shaking her head sadly, Mai ignored the way her eyes were welling with tears. "I can't. But I can hold your hand until you leave. How about that?"

"Okay," she agreed finally. Holding out her other hand, she waited for Akane to grab it before they all made their way to the door Mai and Akane had gone through earlier. With ever step they seemed to glow more until suddenly the warmth of the glow vanished.

Almost instantly the entire room was plunged into darkness.

"Goodbye everyone. It was nice being one of you – even for just a little while," Mai whispered. She could feel warm water on her cheeks and she was glad for the darkness.

"Are you okay?" Bou-san asked finally, clicking on his torch at last.

Mai rubbed away her tears quickly before turning to smile at him. "Of course! Let's get out of here, it's scary now that everything is dark."

"Idiot."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Mai sighed as she looked up at the building. They'd just finished packing up but she'd been unable to help herself from standing in the entryway, looking in.

A touch on her shoulder made her jump and she turned to see Naru standing there.

"Is it time to go already?" she asked.

Naru seemed to think for a moment, wrestling with himself before shaking his head finally. "You can have a couple more minutes," he offered finally in a rare show of patience and kindness.

Mai smiled sadly as she turned to look back into the building again. She wasn't seeing what Naru was though, she was seeing a building full of young children and adults who were suffering through psychosis with no support.

"I figured it out, you know?"

Naru raised an eyebrow in confusion even though she couldn't see it.

"The reason I felt like that from the moment I entered the house. It was because I was feeling Akane-san's emotions. They were so strong that for a moment I was swept up in them, almost like I get swept away with my dreams," she admitted finally.

"You are a very bright person, Mai, but you feel for everyone around as if their pain is your own. Be careful that it doesn't sweep you away."

Mai blinked at the warning but when she turned around, Naru was already half-way back to the van and he was clearly ready to go.

Swallowing, she shut the door behind her finally and locked it with the key she'd been given to lock up the door with.

"Goodbye, Akane-san, Hanako-chan, everyone," she whispered. "I hope you are all finally happy and free."

As the van finally left the building, dust flying up behind it, Akane watched from her perch on top of the building with the other children waving.

"Goodbye, Mai-san. Be careful."

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

*This is an assumption based on facts that I researched. I read way too much on the topic of mental health in Japan in the 1900s and you should all be aware that they were doing better than us all prior to the second world wars end – like, the viewed people with mental health problems with respect and usually they were just confined to the house that their family owned and cared for. They weren't locked away unless they were dangerous. After 1950, there was a law passed that abolished the allowance of private confinement and that was when the mass-stigma of mental health = family shame, near as I can tell. I am by no means an expert on this subject, I just thought I would share some of the interesting facts I learned while researching.

**This is a real thing that happened and if you're interested, I highly recommend reading up on it.

***Onee-san means older sister. Following that you'll see Onii-san which means older brother. Then I've used the honorifics -chan for the younger girls and -kun for the younger boys.


End file.
